With the proliferation of off-road vehicles for recreational and/or work related activities, vehicle operators often find themselves in situations requiring a suitable means for extricating their vehicle and/or vehicles of others and/or equipment or the like from problematic situations wherein a winch is necessary or desired. Fixed mounted winching devices are commonly available for vehicles, however such devices are generally limited in their angular pulling direction and are generally mounted to either the front or the rear of the vehicle as to be dependent upon the ability to conveniently change the orientation of the vehicle for efficient use.
Portable winching devices for vehicular use have been disclosed in the prior art, but generally are heavy, cumbersome devices which are difficult to mount and require the vehicle to have special hitching apparatus for mounting. U.S. Pat. No. 5,072,962 discloses a portable winching device which essentially comprises a winch rigidly mounted with the winding drum facing along the length of the an elongate drawbar, which in turn has box hitch connectors arranged on opposite ends. The drawbar is removably mounted at one end to a vehicle by means of a rigid box hitch and at the other end comprises a means to mount a hitch ball for mounting the tongue of a trailer thereto. Such device has a portable utility in that it can be used in conjunction with multiple different trailers, but it too is limited to rigidly extending generally perpendicular to the vehicle on which it is mounted, thus it too is limited in pulling direction and dependent upon the orientation of the vehicle, generally limiting its utility to pulling equipment such as a boat or the like onto a trailer whose tongue it is mounted to.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,593,139 discloses another arrangement wherein a winch is mounted to a drawbar, having an end of the drawbar comprising a male member for rigidly engaging a box hitch of a vehicle. This arrangement is similarly limited however, to rigidly extending generally perpendicular from the vehicle and generally comprises the same limitations as aforenoted.
It is a primary object of the present invention to provide an improved portable winch which is convenient to carry and easily mountable to common vehicular hitching apparatus.
It is a further object of the invention to provide an improved portable winch, which removably connects to common ball hitch vehicle trailering apparatus.
It is another object of the invention to provide an improved portable winch which has a winding barrel operable through a wide horizontal arc and wide vertical planar orientation of pulling directions, is safe and convenient for use by an inexperienced operator.
These and other objects of the invention will become apparent in the following recitation of the invention.